Pot and pan washing machines, of the type used in restaurants, institutions and other eating facilities often involve a large wash tank or basin in which water is circulated about the pots and pans to provide a washing action. One such machine is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,773,436 issued to Cantrell et al., the specification of which is incorporated herein by reference. The machine of Cantrell includes a wash tank with jets located at an elevated position along the rear wall of the wash tank. The tank is filled with water to a level above the position of the jets. Pots and pans are placed in the wash tank, and a pump is activated to draw water from within the wash tank and direct it through the jets to create a jet stream. Each jet directs its jet stream toward the bottom wall of the wash tank, the bottom wall then deflects the jet stream upward and towards the front wall of the tank. The front wall then deflects the upward moving jet stream towards the rear wall of the tank, and the rear wall deflects the jet stream downward and back towards the front wall along the bottom wall. The combination of deflections of the jet stream from the bottom, front and rear walls provides a rolling washing action within the wash tank.
Although a machine that employs a wash tank and jet stream of the type described above is extremely useful for washing pots and pans, it is less desirable for washing smaller items such as utensils. The wash tank is often of considerable depth making it difficult to retrieve utensils that have been loosely sprawled across the bottom of the tank. Also, the water within the wash tank is often left in the wash tank and reused for several loads, increasing the difficulty of retrieving small items from the bottom of the wash tank.
An alternative to sprawling utensils loosely across the bottom of the wash tank, is to contain the utensils within a utensil basket located within the wash tank. A utensil basket maintains all of the small items within a single area for easy retrieval upon completion of the washing cycle. Additionally, the utensil basket can be removable from the wash tank, further increasing the ease of emptying the utensils from the tank.
Although the use of prior art utensil baskets does allow for easy collection and removal of utensils from a wash-tank type washing machine, they do not efficiently utilize the full washing action of the jet stream. Prior art utensil baskets often comprise a wire mesh frame which can be mounted to or hung from a side of the wash tank. Being positioned along a side of the wash tank, and having indiscriminate dimensions, these prior art baskets only utilize a small portion of the washing action created by the jet stream thus decreasing the effectiveness of the machine in fully cleaning the utensils placed within the basket. Therefore, it is desirable to provide a utensil basket that more fully utilizes the washing action of the jet stream in a wash-tank type washing machine.